Awards and Grants

faculty addressing a class

水多多导航 strives to value, support, and reward effective student-centered teaching.

One of the ways it does so is by recognizing and celebrating faculty members who exemplify teaching excellence. CTE, on behalf of the Provost's office, administers university-wide teaching awards, and works with the award winners to share innovative and effective ideas with the 水多多导航 teaching community.

Teaching Awards

Process

The Teaching Award review process is facilitated by the CTE, but it is Faculty-led. Only faculty can nominate other faculty for Teaching Awards. To nominate a colleague, please email the name of your colleague to cte@smu.edu. Each faculty member can nominate one candidate per award. Nominees will be reviewed by a committee of previous 水多多导航 Teaching Award Winners.

Once all nominations are received, the CTE will contact the candidates and request that they submit the following documents:

  • CV
  • Name & Contact Information of Two (2) References: These MUST be other 水多多导航 Faculty who have observed the candidate’s teaching in the past couple of years. Or, if they have not observed the candidate yet, the candidate must make arrangements for the observation before they submit a letter of recommendation. The CTE will contact the references for letters of recommendation, and letters will be submitted directly to CTE at a later date.
  • Course Evaluations: All course evaluations from the two previous semesters taught. These MUST be from EvaluationKit. All other evaluation types will not be accepted.
  • Teaching Philosophy: We ask candidates to keep these concise and no longer than 2 pages.
  • Sample Syllabus
  • Additional Materials (OPTIONAL): These could be sample assignments, student letters, or anything the candidates deem relevant to support their nomination. A maximum of 4 total additional materials will be accepted.

To be considered, a nominee must submit all of the above documents by the deadline provided.

Fall 2025 Teaching Awards Timeline

  • Sep 2 – Sep 12 | Nominations are open
  • Sep 15 – Sep 26 | Candidates are notified and submit their dossiers in Interfolio
  • Sep 29 – Oct 17 | References are contacted, and letters of support are due directly to the CTE.
  • Oct 20 – Nov 16 | Review committees evaluate Interfolio dossiers and submit rankings to CTE
  • Nov 17 – Nov 21 | Review committees will meet for 1-hour sessions to discuss top-ranked candidates
  • Nov 21 | Selection of nominees is sent to EVPP Rachel Mersey for Review
  • Dec 5 | Final selection of winners is made, and candidates are notified of the decision
  • January (Date TBA) | Winners are announced at the first Faculty Meeting of the year

Additional Awards

In addition to Teaching Awards, the CTE also recognize faculty through other initiatives:

Grants

Currently, the CTE - in partnership with OIT's Academic Technology Team - is happy to provide:

In the past, we offered Pedagogical Partner Up Grants. The product of those grants is available for review at: